


Unexpected Adventures

by hmweasley



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, Force Ghost(s), Heart Attack Exchange 2020, Light Angst, M/M, Mild Sexual Content, Past Character Death, Post-War, Suggestive Themes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-29
Updated: 2020-11-29
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:15:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27776719
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hmweasley/pseuds/hmweasley
Summary: When Finn and Poe arrive on a new planet, they discover an abandoned Jedi temple that may—or may not—contain an important mystery.
Relationships: Poe Dameron/Finn
Comments: 2
Kudos: 13
Collections: Heart Attack Exchange 2020





	Unexpected Adventures

**Author's Note:**

  * For [gloss](https://archiveofourown.org/users/gloss/gifts).



Finn woke slowly, an indulgence he’d grown used to since the rebellion had ended. It was nice letting the world slowly come into focus, first through touch and then on through the senses until Finn was ready to open his eyes and see his surroundings. 

He knew he would find the other side of the bed empty before he opened his eyes. Over that past few years, he had become well acquainted with the ways the mattress shifted when Poe was there versus when he wasn’t. It was the first thing he tuned into as he became conscious. That didn’t stop him from sighing when he opened his eyes and saw the indent on the pillow where Poe had rested his head the night before.

Finn stretched with a load groan and twisted onto his back to stare up at the ceiling. He slept in more rooms than he could count in his life. When he was a Stormtrooper, they had almost always looked the same, but in the time since, he’d seen just about everything. It was astonishing how different something like a ceiling could look from one planet to the next.

It was something he doubted Poe had noticed, since he never stayed in bed for long enough once the morning light began filtering into the room. No, he had a routine to adhere to, and it didn’t include time for laying around. Finn couldn’t help but roll his eyes despite Poe not being there to mock.

He threw the covers back and stood, mourning the loss of warmth as he went. It wasn’t cold in their accommodations, but even room temperature air was an adjustment after a night under the blankets. It was another thing that he wasn’t sure Poe would understand; he seemed to relish throwing off the covers and getting on with his day.

Finn stifled a yawn as he pulled out his clothes for the day. He really needed to stop being so bitter about something that was their typical routine. Most days, he shrugged it off, knowing that he wasn’t going to convince Poe to change things up any time soon, but there were still occasions, such as that morning, where he couldn’t help but pout just a little bit.

It wasn’t a crime to want a snuggle with your boyfriend in the morning before you had to face your responsibilities. Did Finn get an hour or two extra every day without an excuse for cuddle time? Yes. Was he grateful for it? No.

The grumpiness didn’t quite dissipate as he went through his morning routine, but he at least felt more awake once he emerged into the tiny living space that was attached to their bedroom at the inn. BB-8 rolled up to him, beeping excitedly.

“I guess he didn’t go flying then,” Finn muttered.

It was more to himself than for BB-8’s sake, but the droid responded enthusiastically, confirming that Poe had left several hours before for some exercise and to check out what the village they were in had to offer. From what little Finn had seen of it the night before, that wasn’t much, but perhaps daylight had revealed an entirely new look for the place Finn had only seen in the dark so far.

He reached into a sack for some rations that they always kept on hand and fixed himself some breakfast. He thought to himself that, if Poe were there, they could have gone into the village together to see what they could find, but as it was, Finn elected to stay in the room, determined to be there when Poe came back so that he could complain first thing.

“Do you know when he’ll be back, BB-8?” he asked as he sat down to eat.

The only table in their room was so small that it actually might have been meant as a stool, but Finn didn’t complain as he listened to BB-8’s chirps. The droid was confident that Poe would be back within twenty minutes, and Finn trusted the judgement of the droid that had been timing Poe’s morning excursions for longer than Finn had known either of them.

Finishing off his meal, Finn reclined in his chair and took a good look at the room for the first time. They’d hardly switched the lights on when they’d arrived the night before. They’d been dead on their feet and had almost forgotten to remove their boots before collapsing on the bed. Perhaps that was why Finn was feeling particularly annoyed at Poe’s absence that morning.

He sighed when his inspection of the room didn’t turn up anything exciting. He itched to get out and explore the planet that he was visiting for the first time, but he resisted. If he left, he and Poe would inevitably not cross paths until that evening, and that wouldn’t do.

Not for the first time, Finn wished they had a better way to maintain long distance communication between them. Perhaps they needed to invest in something, but Finn knew that would be a long way off. Neither of them were rolling in cash as they both took odd jobs and traveled around in search of work.

Finn turned back to BB-8, and the droid let out one short beep to show that Finn had its attention, though there was caution in it too. Like the droid knew that Finn was annoyed and was waiting for him to voice it. In his boredom, Finn actually started wondering when he’d started being able to read an astromech. He’d been around them for as long as he could remember, but he’d never given them much thought until BB-8.

“How hard is it to sleep in for just one morning, BB-8?” he asked.

BB-8 let out a series of beeps that were slightly offended. As much as the droid had accepted Finn, Finn still wasn’t Poe, and they were both aware of where the droid’s loyalties ultimately lied.

“Right,” Finn muttered. “I shouldn’t have expected a droid to understand sleeping in, should I?”

Another string of beeps that were a little higher pitched than the last, and Finn knew that he was cutting it dangerously close. He bit his tongue, wondering how exactly he’d got saddled with the two travel companions that he had. Sometimes, it baffled him.

* * *

Finn fiddled with the broken mechanical part that he’d dug out of his bag. It was his latest project in a series of them. It had become the closest thing he really had to a hobby since the rebellion ended: tinkering with things. He wasn’t sure how he’d gotten into it. The skill was something that had been taught to him as a Stormtrooper, so he never would have expected to be doing it for fun. Yet something about focusing his attention on an object and how to make it better calmed his mind. It helped him forget everything that wasn’t the object in question, allowing him to center himself.

That was true whether what he was trying to avoid thinking about was the particularly dark memories that still sometimes reared their ugly heads or just the petty annoyance of his boyfriend leaving bed too early that morning.

The part in question was an X-Wing part. Finn tended to favor working with objects that he hadn’t seen in his earlier years. Both because new parts were a challenge and because they didn’t drudge up as many memories. This particular part was causing Finn some new annoyances of its own though because he couldn’t quite piece together how it worked, something that he prided himself on coming naturally to him these days.

The sound of a key turning in the lock of the room’s door made Finn lay the part to the side. He crossed his arms against his chest as Poe entered the room with an easy smile on his face. He was even whistling, which would have been a good thing most of the time but which didn’t make Finn feel any more forgiving.

BB-8 let out a series of excited beeps as it rolled up to Poe’s feet. Poe greeted the droid warmly, hardly sparing a glance for Finn until he’d patted BB-8 lovingly. When he did rise back to his full height and turned to his boyfriend though, the smile on his lips faded.

“First, I wake up alone in bed,” Finn said. “Then you come back a full hour after BB-8 said you would.”

Poe’s chest puffed out in defiance.

“I never told BB-8 when I was coming back,” he pointed out. “Statistics always have outliers. Not all data sets are as reliable as your ability to sleep the day away.”

His smile was back, but this time it wasn’t one of contentment. Instead, it was a smirk that somehow made some of Finn’s annoyance melt away while solidifying it in other ways. He wanted to kiss Poe to wipe the smile off his face, but he also wanted to stay on the opposite end of the room.

“But nothing is more reliable than your inability to just relax for one day,” Finn said with a roll of his eyes.

Poe pulled the only other chair in the room out and sat across from the small stool that was serving as a table. He picked up the part Finn had been working on and inspected it. Having far more experience with X-Wings than Finn, Poe was sure to know exactly what kind of work the part needed, but he didn’t say anything about it as he placed the part back where he’d found it.

“I did relax,” he said. 

Finn frowned, his mind taking a second to catch up and realize that Poe was responding to his last comment.

“Did you?” he asked.

“Yes,” Poe insisted. “I had a nice stroll around this place, and I found something really interesting. That’s why I wasn’t back sooner.”

He knew Finn would be interested in whatever he had to share. That much was evident in his voice, and despite himself, Finn leaned forward, eager to hear about it. Poe knew him well, and he wouldn’t have built something up unless he could follow through.

“There’s an old Jedi Temple here,” Poe revealed. “At first, I couldn’t believe that’s what it was. This place is far enough out of the way that it goes largely unnoticed by everyone, but I would have thought there would be mention of a temple somewhere. After having a poke around, I definitely think that’s what it is though.”

“Rey will want to hear about that,” Finn said, though he wanted to know about it just as much as she did.

The past few years had been a little strange as Finn tried to adjust to the knowledge that he was Force-sensitive. His relationship with it was stronger than it had ever been, but he had trouble considering himself knowledgeable about the Force in the way he viewed Rey as being. That was despite the knowledge that she had already conferred on him all of the knowledge she’d received from Luke. They were, for all intents and purposes, growing in their knowledge together, yet she had become to feel like something of a teacher.

“She would,” Poe agreed with a mischievous smile, “which is why we need to explore it. The place looks like it’s hardly been touched in years. I don’t think the locals pay it any attention. I asked a few of them about it, but they all brushed it off and claimed it was just an abandoned building. I don’t know if anyone but the local delinquent youths actually visit the place anymore. I only walked around the outside a bit, trying to confirm what it was. I figured we could do the rest of the exploring together.”

His smile was easygoing.

“You know,” Finn said, “if you’d waited just a bit longer, then we could have gone out exploring together, and you wouldn’t have needed to backtrack to come get me.”

“And deprive myself of the exercise?” he asked. “Or you the time to fuck up that X-Wing part even more? Not a chance.”

Finn narrowed his eyes and snatched the aforementioned part off the stole. Laughter shone in Poe’s eyes as Finn stored the part back in his bag.

“Are we going or not?” Finn snapped, standing and throwing his bag over his shoulder.

Poe was still laughing quietly to himself as he stood and turned to BB-8.

“Sorry, BB-8, but I think it might be best if you stay here for the day.”

BB-8 beeped in acknowledgement and rolled itself into a corner where it started beeping more softly to itself as it solidified its recent knowledge. Poe held the door to the outside world open and motioned for Finn to go through.

* * *

Long before the temple was in sight, Finn felt it within the Force. It was surprising to him how much his awareness had grown over time. Really, the Force had been there his whole life, guiding him, but he hadn’t had the language to describe what he felt.

As a rank and file Stormtrooper, they hadn’t been taught much about the Force. All he’d really known was that it was an ability that only Jedi and Sith possessed. It had been unfathomable that he might be Force sensitive, so he’d been convinced that what he experienced was something else.

That felt foolish now that he knew exactly what he was experiencing, but at the time, he hadn’t had the knowledge that he’d since gained.

“I can sense that the temple is here,” he told Poe, his voice soft in reverence.

Poe looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

“Really?”

He’d always remained skeptical of the Force despite the company he kept. It seemed that no matter what he saw Poe or Rey do, he could never quite believe in the source of their abilities. 

“Can you really not feel it?” Finn asked.

Despite learning that not everyone sensed the Force the way he did, Finn couldn’t wrap his mind around some people not sensing it. He supposed he and Poe were alike that way. Alike and yet polar opposites. While Poe couldn’t fathom what the Force felt like, Finn couldn’t imagine a life where the Force wasn’t constantly there, shaping and guiding him.

“I can’t feel anything but the wind,” Poe said, motioning at the air to indicate the slight breeze that wasn’t even enough to ruffle their hair. “You sure that’s not what you’re feeling?”

Finn frowned at Poe’s smirk and rolled his eyes.

“That’s nothing like what the Force feels like. We’ve talked about this before.”

“Yeah,” Poe said with a shrug, taking Finn’s hand in his own as if to placate him. “Yet I still don’t get it. I’ve focused on it and done what you and Rey have told me to do, but there’s nothing there. Not for me at least. I know the temple is right around that corner, but I can’t feel it.”

“I’m not really feeling the temple. I’m feeling the Force like I always do. It’s just telling me that the temple is there.”

It was clear from the look on Poe’s face that the explanation had made little sense to him, but Finn had come to expect that. He had accepted that Poe would never understand the universe in the same way that he did. They were coming from different places, and no matter how innate the Force felt to Finn, Poe didn’t sense it the way he did. Even if it was still guiding all of his actions just like it did for everyone.

But knowing that it was hopeless didn’t stop him from incessantly needling his boyfriend from time to time.

“I swear, Poe, if you actually tried when Rey or I try to help you, you’d actually be able to sense it. I don’t think you’ve given it your all.”

Poe elbowed him lightly in the side.

“Maybe not,” he said with a smirk. “But I don’t think that’s my fault. It’s just a little hard to believe in, all right? It’s like you’re insulting me for not believing that the sky is black when I can clearly see that it’s blue.”

They rounded the corner, and the temple came into view, immediately distracting Finn from their conversation. He dropped Poe’s hand as he walked toward the ancient stone building in awe. He’d seen other old Jedi structures, especially since the end of the war, but they never ceased to fill him with a sense of wonder. Though the Force permeated everything, there truly was something special about places like this.

Reaching the building, he pressed his palm into the worn and cracked stone, letting the Force communicate with him what it wished. He could no longer even sense Poe behind him, though he hovered within arm’s reach.

The Force was strong here, and it seemed to be telling Finn something that he couldn’t quite understand, though he longed to. He pulled away from the stone and turned to Poe.

“Thank you for bringing me here,” he said, earning an amused eyebrow raise in response to his genuineness. “I feel like we were meant to come.”

Poe let out a huff and rolled his eyes.

“Sure,” he said skeptically. “Let’s go see what’s inside then.”

He brushed past Finn to go inside, none of the reverence that Finn felt in his actions.

* * *

As they traveled farther into the interior of the temple, it was clear that the building hadn’t been maintained for a long time. Finn was willing to bet that no one had attended to it even before the fall of the Jedi, and the Force seemed to confirm that for him. It was still all around him in a way that was simultaneously comforting and invigorating.

Even though Poe also looked around the place with curiosity, his face didn’t hold the same sense of wonder as Finn’s. This was little more than an old building, with all of the mysteries that abandoned buildings usually held. If it was anything more than that for Poe, it was only because it was so for Finn.

There was something new in the Force. Finn spun around and found an older human woman watching them. At least she appeared human at first glance. Looking more closely, Finn realized that she was only half human, though he couldn’t recognize what the other part of her heritage was. Yellowish green scales decorated her hands and what Finn could see of her neck, but they faded before they reached her face. It didn’t seem to be any of the species they’d encountered so far on the planet.

Sensing that something had caught Finn’s attention, Poe also turned around, and his hand was on his belt where his weapon was stored in a flash. Some instincts never completely died, and in this case, it was probably for a good reason. There were a number of places in the galaxy that still weren’t entirely safe, and the jury was still out on this one. They hadn’t been there long.

But Finn held out a hand in front of Poe. Nothing about this woman felt threatening, not that Poe would take him seriously if he voiced that out loud. He preferred to see definitive proof himself before he trusted anyone, and Finn couldn’t fault him for that.

“Hello,” Finn called, keeping his voice as calm as he could manage.

The woman stared at him, her face largely emotionless. He couldn’t tell if she was frightened of them or just startled to see someone in the temple.

“Sorry if we’ve worried you,” Finn continued. “We’re travelers and discovered this old temple. We’re here out of curiosity. Are you from here? Do you know anything about this place?”

There was a pause long enough that Finn didn’t think he was going to get an answer. Then, just as he opened his mouth to try again, the woman spoke.

“This settlement has been my home for my entire life, but my story isn’t one that would interest others. You’re here for the temple? No one has cared about this temple since I was a young girl. Before that, the people who stayed here kept to themselves. They did not bother us, so we did not bother them. None of us knew what they did here.”

Finn frowned. Was she speaking of Jedi or of others who had taken over the place once the Jedi left? Surely, the woman would have heard legends of the Jedi. If they had been here in her lifetime, that would have inspired stories in the town. Unless they were someone else.

Finn took a step forward, and Poe moved beside him. He had sensed that this was a conversation that Finn needed to handle, but he clearly wasn’t going to stay at a distance for it.

“Do you know what this place is?” Finn asked, deciding that was a better question than directly mentioning the Jedi by name.

Many were still scared to mention the Jedi after what they’d been through. It continued to carry a feeling of danger with it. One that would take a long time to erase.

The woman once again took her time with answer, her eyes scanning both men as she considered her answer. Whatever she was looking for, Finn hoped whatever she found was good. He forced himself to relax, trusting that the Force was correct at this woman was nothing to be worried about.

“There are whispers that it’s a Jedi temple,” she said breathily, her eyes flickering around the place. “When I was young, we loved to tell stories in secret, but I haven’t heard those in decades. Who knows what the young ones say now. The adults would rather not speak of the place. It is as if this place doesn’t exist.”

Poe took it upon himself to speak for the first time, nearly cutting the woman off in the process.

“What exactly were those stories you used to tell?”

His voice echoed through the place, louder than either the woman’s or Finn’s had been. Finn hit him on the arm lightly and scowled.

“Careful,” he cautioned in a voice too low for the woman to hear where she stood still far away. “That doesn’t seem like something she’ll trust outsiders with.”

Poe sighed quietly but didn’t argue against the caution. Finn turned back to the woman, who had taken several steps backward and still had her gaze trained on them.

“They were only stories,” she said in a voice that was too defensive to sound natural. “They didn’t mean anything, but they’ve kept people away from this place, which is all the better for me. No one has stepped foot in this place for fifty years or more. Except me. And now you.”

Finn looked at her even closer. The clothes she wore were visibly dirty and worn, though they bore signs of having been well made long ago. She clutched tightly at a bulging bag that hung over her shoulder. Though he knew it was a risk to ask and that the woman could disappear at any moment, he had to ask.

“Do you often come here?”

The question didn’t scare the woman farther. She even took a step closer, keeping her eyes trained on him.

“I’ve lived in this temple for more than ten years. It’s the only place where they won’t bother me.”

Finn only had a split second to wonder who ‘they’ were before his mind was distracted with other thoughts. This strange woman had lived in a Jedi temple for a decade. Whether she was Force-sensitive or not, she’d been surrounded with that energy, and Finn was bursting with a desire to ask her questions. There were so many things she could have experienced. It also helped explain what he’d been feeling in the Force since she’d appeared.

“You’ve been here for ten years,” Finn said. “You must have explored the entire place top to bottom a million times. What have you learned about it? Can you tell us about any secrets we might find here?”

It was the wrong thing to ask. The woman shook her head quickly in a way that seemed instinctual and not a considered movement. 

“I have to go,” she chanted repeatedly, head turning in different directions as if searching for the best escape.

She vanished so quickly that Finn might have thought it was magic. He was sure the Force had something to do with it. The woman knew secrets, of that he was certain.

“That was weird,” Poe muttered from beside him, his own gaze locked on the spot the woman had disappeared.

“Something has happened here,” Finn said. “Maybe it was all in the past, and that’s why people avoid the place. But maybe there’s something going on right now. Let’s see what we can find.”

“You sure?” Poe asked, watching him closely. “That woman has made this her home, and I don’t think she wants us here.”

FInn sighed. It was true in a way, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that the Force was telling him to explore.

“Yes,” he said decisively. “She’s lived here, but I assume she’s only really taken part of the temple for herself. We won’t intrude there, but I want to see what else is here. I just have to know.”

Poe gave a short nod to show his assent, though he wasn’t particularly thrilled as he followed Finn down another hallway.

* * *

The farther they traveled inside the temple, the larger the building seemed. Calling it one building was false, FInn had quickly realized. It was a complex composed of at least several buildings, with only one visible from the outside. All of them were in similar states of disrepair, but the sheer size of them seemed to have drawn Poe in nearly as much as Finn.

As they explored more corners, the Force was as constant of a presence as always within Finn. He paid close attention, waiting for it to provide answers as to why he was there. This wasn’t just another journey; he could tell that much. The whispers were there, but the full answers that he was seeking were just out of reach.

He didn’t dare speak any of that out loud to Poe. Though the ruins might have been interesting to the pilot, he wouldn’t understand why Finn was searching for something specific within them. After all, there appeared to be nothing here than some abandoned buildings and, perhaps, an elderly woman who had made the place her home.

Finn glanced over his shoulder, half expecting the woman in question to be behind him, but there was nothing. The same strange change in the Force that he’d felt when she was around was there though, and Finn couldn’t shake the idea that she was too, somewhere just behind his field of vision.

Before he could dwell on it more, Poe was at his side. Not just at his side actually but pressing against him in a way that he wouldn’t have dared when they were in public. Finn raised a skeptical eyebrow.

Of course, they were alone as far as Poe was concerned. It was only Finn who couldn’t shake the feeling that something or someone else was somewhere nearby.

“We’ve been walking around this place for more than an hour,” Poe said, a smirk on his lips. “Don’t you think we should take a break?”

His hands found Finn’s waist, making it clear exactly what type of break he imagined. Finn smiled, unable to stop himself when Poe was so close and looking as gorgeous as always, but the action only encouraged Poe, who leaned in. Finn pressed a hand over Poe’s heart, making him stop his advance without pushing him away.

“I don’t think it’s a good time,” Finn said, a note of regret in his voice. “There’s something going on here, Poe. I don’t know what it is, but I don’t think we’re completely alone.”

Poe snorted as if Finn had made a joke, but he took a step back, showing that he understood that Finn was serious. Even if Poe himself didn’t agree with the assessment.

“Who exactly do you think is around?” he asked. “The woman from before? I think it’s safe to say that she disappeared.”

Finn sighed and shook his head.

“I wouldn’t be so sure of that. The way she talked about it made it seem like this place is some kind of safe haven for her. Can we be sure that she ever leaves this place?”

Poe stared at Finn blankly for a moment, marinating the thought in his mind. When he finally spoke, his expression was neutral.

“We can’t,” he admitted. “And it’s definitely possible. Her behavior was strange, and she definitely seemed like someone who prefers to keep her distance from others. That would be exactly the kind of person who would make themselves at home in some abandoned ruins and shun contact with the outside world. But I don’t think she’s following us. If anything, she’s probably hidden away until she’s convinced that we’ve left.”

“She’s not the only possibility,” Finn said.

He pulled himself out of Poe’s grasp, his eyes scanning the walls around them. They looked remarkably similar to every other part of the temple that they’d explored. If Finn was using only his eyes, then their journey would have begun to feel quite monotonous he realized, which was probably the reason for Poe’s request. But he wasn’t using only his eyes. There was something here, and the search for it had trumped everything else for Finn.

“Who else could be here?” Poe asked.

It wasn’t accusatory like Poe might have thrown at him in the past, frustrated that someone seemed to have information that, no matter how hard he tried, Poe didn’t have access to himself. But those days were in the past. Poe trusted that Finn believed everything he was telling him.

“That I don’t know,” Finn said with a shrug.

There was a sudden change in the Force like a surge of energy. Finn spun around before he could explain what he’d sensed to Poe. There, standing half hidden around the corner, was the same woman from earlier. She peeked out at them, her eyes slightly narrowed as she observed them closely.

Poe had followed his gaze and swore though his words were, thankfully, only loud enough for Finn to hear. Finn felt him take a step closer, coming to stand at Finn’s side with their arms brushing each other.

Her expression wasn’t particularly welcoming, but Finn still trusted the Force, which wasn’t labelling her as a threat of any kind.

Poe twitched, and Finn knew that he was itching to put his hand on his weapon just in case. Finn nudged him in the arm and shook his head.

“I’ll follow your lead,” Poe muttered just for the two of them.

Finn turned his full attention back to the woman, who hadn’t moved an inch despite being spotted.

“What do you want?” he called to her.

For some reason, actually being addressed seemed to alarm her more than their gaze. She began shaking her head slowly but repeatedly—back and forth, back and forth—like a clock’s pendulum.

“You will find it on your own.”

The words were spoken too quietly to be heard across the distance between them, yet they rang in Finn’s ears with stunning clarity, almost as if they’d been carried by the wind. He stared straight at the woman, waiting for more, but she was gone in one blink of the eye.

Poe swore again, this time louder and with wild gesticulations that fully illustrated his feelings.

“I think you’re right,” he told Finn the minute he felt slightly calmer. “There is something going on with that woman, and there is something more here, even if it’s just her being strange and a little creepy.”

“A little?” Finn asked with a small smile.

Poe rolled his eyes and turned from Finn, determined not to reward him for the comment.

“Come on,” he urged instead. “I assume you want to figure out whatever this thing is before sundown?”

* * *

It wasn’t uncommon for Poe to make up for his morning disappearances by being incredibly attentive at night. In fact, it had come to be something of a routine as their relationship had progressed into being the most stable aspect of their almost nomadic lives, and Finn always relished the moments when Poe was focused on nothing but him. Those moments were unlike anything Finn had experienced before, and now that he had them, he never wanted to give them up.

But on that particular night, he couldn’t quite bring himself to focus on the attention that Poe was trying so hard to give.

Poe had pulled him close in bed, one of his hands on Finn’s waist to hold him in place. Finn smiled at him and reciprocated the kiss, but his all wasn’t in it like it typically was, which Poe easily sensed when he tried to deepen the kiss. Instead of continuing it like usual, he pulled away, a frown on his lips.

“Are you still thinking about that temple?” he asked softly, their lips still only a breath apart.

Finn snorted in amusement.

“Of course I am. There was something going on there. Even you agreed, but we couldn’t find anything after spending an entire day. There are more secrets in that old temple. We didn’t even get to all of it. How is it that such a massive Jedi temple existed here and it’s not even in the maps of the galaxy that we have?”

Poe shrugged and flopped onto his back with a shrug, any attempts at physical intimacy had apparently been abandoned for the moment. Something which would have caused Finn disappointment on a usual day was almost missed entirely as he took it upon himself to saddle up to his boyfriend’s side and wrap an arm around his waist.

“A lot of the records on the Jedi have been destroyed,” Poe pointed out. “The fact that none seem to exist now doesn’t necessarily mean anything about this particular temple. It was probably part of a larger purge.”

Finn considered each of the possibilities that had been running through his mind throughout the day, occasionally distracting him from the search itself.

“You’re probably right,” he admitted. “I know you are, but that doesn’t change the fact that this place must have been important somehow before the records of it were lost. People invested a lot of time and energy into building this place, and I can tell why. The Force is strong there. No matter why it originally disappeared, something is happening there. I know it.”

Poe was silent as Finn’s words came to an end. Finn let the silence stand for a minute, digesting his own words as much as Poe was. He didn’t have any grand theories about what they had stumbled upon, but he knew he was meant to find something there that he hadn’t yet.

Eventually, it was Poe who broke the silence.

“We only have one more day before we have to continue on our trip on Coruscant. You’re really going to make me spend that day in that temple again, aren’t you?”

Finn tilted his head back to look at Poe with the most innocent of smiles that he could muster on his lips. He tightened his grip around Poe’s waist.

“The search will go faster with two sets of eyes,” he said. “And if we’re lucky, we might discover the secret earlier in the day and then have a night out after. Besides, is there really that much to do here?”

Finn had seen a bit of the village they were in when coming and going from the temple, and it was nothing more than a village. It seemed like a nice enough place in the galaxy if you were going to put down roots on a tract of actual land, but there wasn’t a long list of entertainment options. There was one drinking establishment that hadn’t had more than a few patrons when he and Poe had walked by it on the way back to their rooms.

Poe released a dramatic sigh that really was nothing more than that: dramatics.

“Fine,” he relented. “We’ll go back to the temple, but we’re going there first thing in the morning. No sleeping in on me. I want to get in and out of there as soon as possible. We’re overdue for a date night, and we are actually going to see more of this planet before we set off.”

Finn groaned at the thought of waking at the crack of dawn like Poe was inclined to do, but he also didn’t argue. Though he knew he would think differently come the morning, when Poe woke him up roughly and demanded he get dressed, but in that moment, he was too curious about the mystery of the temple to protest the thought of learning the truth sooner rather than later.

“Deal,” he said.

He pushed himself up onto his elbows and smiled down at Poe before lowering himself down for a kiss. Poe reciprocated and rolled them so that Finn was the one on his back with Poe hovering above him.

As Poe closed the gap between them, Finn was finally able to forget about the mystery of the temple. Even if only for a short while.

* * *

When they arrived back at the temple the next morning, Finn got the same message from the Force that he’d felt the previous day. He glanced around to see if anything had changed, but it all looked the same. He doubted the temple had seen any sudden changes since the woman they’d met yesterday had moved in. The plants in the cracks and the wind and rain-worn stone had all come slowly.

“Hey, lady!”

Poe’s sudden shout startled Finn, who whirled around to face Poe with a sharp look in his eye.

“Quiet down!” he snapped.

It felt wrong to violate the quietness of the temple in such a way, even if there was no one around to enforce rules. To Finn, it just felt natural. Not so for Poe, who was turning his head to and fro in search of a specific person as opposed to the answers that Finn wanted to find.

“She must be here somewhere if she lives here, right?” Poe asked, still looking for her.

“We have no idea what her schedule is like,” Finn said with a roll of his eyes. “For all we know, she gets up before dawn and does some shopping. She may live in an abandoned temple, but she’s getting food somehow. She has to be leaving at some point. Why not early in the morning while a lot of people are still sleeping?”

Some of the stiffness in Poe’s shoulders faded, and he gave an absentminded nod.

“You’re right,” he said. “She probably does. It’s just… I still feel like there was something off with her. I don’t really like not knowing where she is.”

Finn got it. There was something about that woman that made him curious too. She had to know more about the temple than she’d been willing to tell them, and he was sure she could help him with what he was seeking if she’d been inclined. But he didn’t think it was a viable option.

“Don’t you want to get this over with quickly?” he asked Poe, taking his boyfriend’s arm and tugging him deeper into the temple. “The only way we’ll do that is if we actually pick up where we left off yesterday.”

Poe came easily, following Finn as he hurried to where they had last been searching the complex. Whereas yesterday Finn hadn’t left a single stone unturned (figuratively, he hadn’t been interested in actually dismantling the temple), this time he walked straight past the areas that had kept them occupied before.

Unless there were more secrets to uncover—which Finn wouldn’t rule out—there seemed to be only one building that they hadn’t scoured from top to bottom. It looked just like all of the others. While each of the buildings had likely served a specific purpose at one time, any distinguishing features had been lost to time along with any previous signs of sentient life.

Poe fell quiet too as he helped Finn inspect the place. For a while, the only sounds were their shoes against the stone floors and the occasional cough as they stirred up dust. They each let the other go where their search took them, but neither strayed too far.

It was on the second floor that Poe suddenly let out a startled yelp that had Finn running in from an adjoining room. Whatever he was expecting to find, it wasn’t what caught his attention once he was there.

Poe was staring down at a cage that housed some kind of furry animal that Finn had never see before. It was furry and had four legs. All of its fur was a light grey except for black tufts that stood up on the tips of its triangular ears.

“What the…” Finn breathed as he stared at the creature.

It stared back with sad-looking golden eyes.

“I think it’s a type of cat,” Poe said, his voice oddly quiet. “Like those things that rich people keep as pets.”

Finn had heard of cats before of course. He knew they were fashionable pets on some planets, especially within the Inner Rim. They also came in different sizes, from intimidatingly large to small enough that they looked perpetually like babies. The one in front of them was probably medium-sized, though would probably have been capable of inflicting damage if it was inclined and wasn’t caged.

“A cat,” Finn repeated in disbelief.

He stared at the cat, which was still watching him with clear, almost intelligent-looking eyes. The Force spoke to him, and Finn was suddenly sure that this was what he was meant to find in the depths of the temple.

“A cat,” he said yet again, this time slight irritation coloring his voice. “The Force was leading me towards a cat this whole time?”

He didn’t have anything against the idea of pets necessarily, but he didn’t understand the phenomenon either. While he didn’t particularly relish seeing an animal caged like this one, he wouldn’t have considered himself someone who’d want to go out of his way just to rescue one. If rescuing was even what he was supposed to be doing.

For his part, Poe looked amused as he looked between Finn and the cat.

“You’re always saying that the Force connects everything,” he reminded Finn. “Guess that applies to cats.”

It did, but Finn didn’t like Poe’s tone, so he didn’t bother with a response.

“What’s it even doing here?” he asked instead. “Did someone put it here?”

“They had to, didn’t they? I really doubt that cat caged itself in here just for fun.”

Finn sighed and ran a hand over his face as he ran through all of the possible options.

“Sure, right. You’re right. What I’m really asking is why did someone put this cat here? Was it that woman? Is she keeping it as a pet? Or doing something else?”

Poe shrugged and bent down to get a better look at the cat. It shied away, moving itself as far to the other side of the cage as it was capable of and watching Poe with the same alert eyes.

“If it’s a pet, I don’t think she’s doing a very good job,” Poe said. “It doesn’t look particularly happy, does it?”

Finn crouched down beside him. It was true. The cat’s fur was thick, but Finn still got the sense that it was thinner than it should have been. And there was something in its demeanor that just didn’t match with what domesticated animals he’d met in his life that were actually well cared for.

“So, we’re breaking it out,” he said slowly. “But how exactly? There’s no key for the lock on this cage.”

Poe bent closer and inspected the keyhole on the door. There was no key anywhere in sight, and neither of them could have even begun to search for it. Finn got a strong sense that it was long gone from the temple grounds.

“Must be a job for the Force, right?” he said, tossing Finn an encouraging grin. “It’s why the Force needed you here.”

“I’ve never opened a lock before,” Finn observed as much to himself as to Poe.

It was true. Opening locks often meant invading privacy, and it wasn’t yet something he’d felt a pressing need to practice, even if he could imagine situations where it would be abundantly useful.

“There’s a first time for everything,” Poe observed, placing a steadying hand on Finn’s back.

Finn focused on the touch, letting it ground him to the temple and the Force. He reached out to find the cat within the Force. It took every ounce of concentration he possessed and more time than he even realized had passed, but eventually the lock clicked open, and Finn sagged.

Poe caught him before he could fall all the way to the ground, which Finn was thankful for. The stone looked hard and cold, the complete opposite of Poe’s arms. For a moment, they were both too occupied to notice the door slowly swinging open and the cat inching closer to the door.

Fur brushed against Finn’s hand, and he jumped, tugging it quickly to his chest. The second he’d felt the cat, though, the animal was gone. It’s tail was the last glimpse they got before it disappeared out of the temple.

The two men stared after it with Finn still being supported in Poe’s arms.

“You know,” Poe eventually said, “I’ve seen a lot of very strange things in my life, but somehow, this takes the cake.”

* * *

They’d made it almost to the other side of the compound when the woman appeared in front of them. There was a smile on her face that startled Finn more than her sudden appearance itself. He gripped at Poe’s hand to steady himself, not quite able to put into words why he felt as overwhelmed as he did. Somehow, despite his ‘mission’ (if it could be called that) really only being to save a cat, he felt as if he’d had far too eventful of a time the past two days.

“Thank you,” the woman said.

She was far less intimidating when cheerful, Finn thought briefly. Poe snorted beside him, and Finn tugged on his arm. He hadn’t yet mentioned the sneaking suspicion that he’d been considering on their trip back, so he couldn’t quite blame Poe for his dismissive attitude.

“Are you a Force ghost?” Finn asked, his curiosity getting the better of him and not letting him stop to consider whether the question was out of line.

The woman merely smiled though, tilting her head to the side as she analyzed him.

“Am I like other Force ghosts you’ve seen?” she asked, hedging the question in a way that Finn didn’t miss.

Poe didn’t either if the way he stiffened beside Finn was anything to go by.

“The only Force ghost I’ve seen was Luke Skywalker,” he admitted. “And he looked like he was alive.”

The woman gave no indication of if she knew who Luke was or not, but Finn hadn’t really been expecting that anyway. He wasn’t sure what he was expecting; it definitely wasn’t for her to tell the whole and complete truth.

“It would take someone very intune with the Force to do something like that,” the woman said in a voice that might have been observing the weather.

Poe snorted, and Finn squeezed his hand in a warning. The woman was being downright friendly compared to before, but she seemed even more to be someone whom Finn didn’t want to anger.

“They would,” he agreed, watching her closely for any sign of...anything.

He really didn’t know.

She gave them one last smile and then vanished. Poe swore, yanking his hand from Finn’s as he reacted. Finn just stared at the place she’d last been, still trying to work out exactly what it was he’d just seen.

“So, this entire time, she was a Jedi?” Poe asked more to the sky than to Finn, though Finn answered anyway.

“Possibly,” he said. “I think she was Force-sensitive at least. Or used to be, if she really was a ghost. To be honest, I still don’t know what just happened. I don’t think we ever will.”

Poe’s jaw was tight as he turned to look at Finn again. The not understanding everything part always frustrated him. Finn sometimes wondered if that was the real reason that Poe couldn’t sense the Force. There was too much unknown in it; he didn’t focus on how much knowledge could be gained but on how much of that knowledge he would never actually achieve.

“Let’s go shopping,” Finn said out of nowhere, giving Poe a smile.

Poe gaped at him for a moment in confusion.

“You did want to explore this place more, right?” Finn asked, raising a teasing eyebrow.

Poe huffed and took Finn’s hand again.

“Let’s go,” he said, leading the way out of the temple.

* * *

The hustle and bustle of the village market was almost more than Finn could take. The past two days felt like a blur now that people were rushing around him, shouting for others and laughing boisterously over jokes. Finn stuck close to Poe’s side, taking comfort in his continued presence. He felt a little stunned, though he didn’t think it should have been such a big deal.

They walked down the busy market street, glancing at stalls without either of them making a move to buy anything. That wasn’t really unusual. Neither Finn nor Poe were particularly materialistic. They didn’t tend to buy things that they didn’t need with only a few exceptions, such as Finn’s recent hobby of tinkering. Still, on a usual day, they would stop every few booths and inspect the merchandise more thoroughly. They would talk about what the items were worth, sometimes angering the stall’s owner in the process.

Neither of them so much as paused this time though. They were both too lost in their own thoughts over what had happened: something so inconsequential yet mysterious at the same time. Finn couldn’t believe that he may have spoken to a former Jedi without having a single clue what was happening. And he’d come away from it with absolutely no knowledge.

Unless there’d been a lesson in the experience that he hadn’t yet digested. He yearned to dissect the experience with Rey, but he couldn’t wait to hear what she had to say either. He wanted answers immediately, even though he knew that wasn’t always how the universe worked, especially when it concerned the Force.

They were in one of those towns you sometimes stumbled upon in the galaxy where everyone knew everyone. Finn knew that most of the people there had never left this planet, and they didn’t often have visitors either if the way they kept shooting glances at Finn and Poe were any indication. Though Finn had known that much when they’d arrived and found only one building that had accommodations for visitors.

He was used to the attention they received in places such as this, but he was never particularly fond of it. He could never get used to being note-worthy in any way, even if it was only as an outsider, but having so many eyes on him after the morning he’d just had was particularly stressful. The idea of going back to their room was very appealing, but Finn knew the silence would do him less good than the noise of the market.

“This place is pretty loud for a village,” Finn noted.

Poe gave him a smile and squeezed his hand.

“Is it?” he asked. “Or is that just the deserted temple distorting your perception?”

It was, and they both knew it, but Finn shrugged as if he wasn’t sure anyway.

They made it another block down the street before Poe tugged Finn into a small always between two shops. His hand was tight in Finn’s, and his face was taut as he looked over his shoulder for eavesdroppers. Finn ran his thumb along the back of Poe’s hand, feeling a new sense of calm come over him when he say Poe’s nervousness.

“This is ridiculous,” Poe muttered, leaning in to press his forehead against Finn’s. “All we did was safe a stupid cat, but I just feel weird about the whole thing. I’ve seen what the Force can do before. I saw Luke in that cave. I saw Leia survive when she shouldn’t have. I know what some people are capable of with the Force, but they were Skywalkers. Even Rey is...Rey. I don’t know. But that woman was just some random woman I’ve never heard of, and if she actually was a Force ghost of some kind… I just don’t know how I feel about it.”

Poe was right in a certain sense. If there was ever going to be someone who would begin to change how Poe viewed the Force, Finn wouldn’t have thought that it would be a woman they’d never seen before and likely would never see again.

Finn lifted his hand that wasn’t holding Poe’s to grip Poe’s upper arm instead, further steadying him.

“She might have been random to us, but that doesn’t mean she was random to everyone.”

Poe rolled his eyes but didn’t otherwise speak.

“Sure,” Finn continued, “she might not have been a Skywalker, but you’ve heard the stories about past Jedi too. I know you have.”

Poe shrugged, his hand finding Finn’s waist.

“That’s all they were for me really though,” he said. “The Jedi were stories. Maybe the stories were true, but they were in the past. Like I said, I know the Force exists, but it’s not something I can actually experience like you can. It’s something I only see the effects of sometimes, and I’m never prepared when I do.”

FInn understood. After all, there were still many things about the Force he didn’t understand either, and he often felt the same way about those aspects of it. He was sure that the mysteries would never completely disappear, but he also realized that he had accepted that at some point. Poe wasn’t quite there yet.

“Maybe you’ll turn out to be Force-sensitive after all.”

It was meant to be a joke, but there was an element of truth to it. Finn couldn’t completely shake his desire for Poe to experience what he did every day, even if he knew nothing was likely to come of it. Poe heard it in his voice too. He let out a long exhale, his eyes meeting Finn’s again as he lifted his forehead from the other man’s.

“We’ll see about that,” he said with a small grin. “For now, all I know is that I need a strong drink.”

They pulled apart but kept their hands interlocked as they left the alleyway and rejoined the crowd on the street. A shopkeeper eyed them as they passed but didn’t say anything.

“The village cantina is nearby, isn’t it?” Finn asked, glancing down the street in the direction that he thought they’d seen it in the night they arrived.

“I hope so,” Poe grumbled, his steps speeding up as they went.

Finn laughed, feeling a bit lighter as he followed. It was always like that with Poe. Even when things felt a little much, they were easier when Poe was close by. It had been something new for Finn when they’d first got together. It had been a little like his friendship with Rey, yet it had grown even stronger very quickly. Finn still had trouble believing that his life had become what it was, but with his hand in Poe’s, he had to accept that it was.

* * *

By the time they fell into bed that night, Finn felt warm from the inside out. The bedroom air held that slight chill that often came with night even if the day was warm, but even that faded once they were under the blankets together. Finn snuggled close to Poe’s side, wrapping his arms around Poe’s waist, and Poe reciprocated.

They wouldn’t stay in that position forever. Finn could already tell that they would grow stiff and uncomfortable if they fell asleep like that, but it had been a long day, and in that moment, he soaked up the comfort that Poe freely gave. Quiet moments at the end of the day were some of Finn’s favorites. Even the Force, a constant, was quieter when his mind was consumed with Poe.

He knew Poe felt similarly, could tell in the way his boyfriend traced shapes along his bare skin. Finn tightened his grip slightly and turned to place a quick kiss to Poe’s chest.

“After a day like today, you’ll sleep in tomorrow, right?” Finn asked into the darkness of the night.

Poe snorted, his chest rising and falling with it beneath Finn. One of his hands found Finn’s hair and began playing with the strands. His other stopped tracing shapes to instead trace a path down the length of Finn’s arm.

“I’ll think about it,” he said.

Finn heard the smirk in his voice without lifting his head, and he would have rolled his eyes if they hadn’t already fluttered closed. Instead, he found enough energy to poke Poe in the stomach just hard enough for it to be really felt. Poe squirmed and swatted his hand away, but he laughed as he readjusted himself and clutched Finn to his chest.

“Haven’t you already seen everything this place has to offer?” Finn grumbled.

“It’s not just about the sightseeing. I like being active in the mornings. It helps jumpstart the day.”

It sounded so much like standard medical advice that no one actually followed that Finn wanted to hate Poe for saying it. Instead, he just felt fond.

He pushed himself up onto an elbow, one hand resting on Poe’s chest. His eyes had adjusted enough to the light that he could more or less make out the expression on Poe’s face as he stared up at him, one hand on his lower back.

“If you stay in bed, then I can think of a different way to make your morning active,” Finn said, leaning in until their lips were only a breath apart.

He didn’t close the gap, choosing instead to watch the cycle of expressions that played out on Poe’s face as he tried to process Finn’s words without just getting distracted by his proximity.

“I might have been convinced,” he said, voice even lower than before. 

His eyes had zeroed in on Finn’s lips in the dim light, and Finn smirked before he gave in and closed the gap between them, their bodies somehow slotting together even closer than they’d been before.

Finn knew he could be very persuasive when he wanted to be, at least when Poe was involved.

Come morning, Finn would wake up to a still warm bed, and a still sleepy eyed boyfriend running his fingers through his hair. He’d wake up to soft kisses that deepened as they awoke. He’d wake up feeling more satisfied than he had in months, which would be more than welcome after they previous day they’d had.

It would still be too early as far as Finn was concerned, but those complaints would die quickly because Poe could also be very persuasive when he wanted to be. And Finn wasn’t going to waste finally getting what he had asked for.


End file.
